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With several deaths already recorded at the Beitbridge border post, the freight forwarding and transport industries have called for urgent intervention saying that “a humanitarian disaster is unfolding.”
The industries said the situation was “creating a possible Covid-19 catastrophe that also threatens a cholera outbreak.”
In an open letter to Health Minister Zweli Mkhize, the organizations called for urgent intervention, highlighting their “dire conditions”, but have received no response.
The executive director of the Federation of Eastern and Southern Africa Road Transport Associations, Mike Fitzmaurice, said that Covid-19 regulations and restrictions introduced in early December had severely compromised the flow of traffic on both sides of the border post.
“There is only one place to test with a single point of entry and exit, creating a massive bottleneck that extends from Musina [Limpopo] on the SA side to the border post, and for more than 20 km on the Zimbabwe side.
“Congestion, aggravated by the annual increase in traffic at this time of year, has already cost SA the loss of revenue. During the first three weeks of December, the cost of delays at Beitbridge was nearly R88 million per week. Truck queuing delays amounted to R609 million per week, amounting to R2,092,860,000 to date, ”he said.
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